


Close Quarters

by i_like_my_eggs_benedict



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, College AU, M/M, Performing Arts School AU, Roommates, Slow Burn, What Have I Done, Yurio is forced to live next to Victor Effing Nikiforov, but he also gets to live with Otabek so its chill
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-09-17 17:06:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9334535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_like_my_eggs_benedict/pseuds/i_like_my_eggs_benedict
Summary: Yuri moved thousands of miles away from home in Russia to attend a prestigious performing arts university in the States, gambling that  his stupid former rink mate Victor (who also attends) wouldn't be anywhere near him.Otabek also took a chance by coming to this university so far away from the security of life back home, hoping his future and career will go somewhere.They were both slightly worried about who their roommate would be, but it seems like the guy they were put with just seems to...fit.-------Lmao I'm writing a slow burn multi chapter otayuri college roommate au. Voluntarily. Kill me pls.Say hi at victuuri-oturi on Tumblr!





	1. Chapter 1

Otabek stared at the colorful sign on the door that was supposed to lead to his new room. His name was spelled in English characters, but Otabek could still tell that it had initially been spelled wrong. There was an “I” printed where the “E” should to be, but someone had clearly taken a Sharpie and crudely wrote over it in order to correct the mistake. The font was blue by the way. Bright blue. He looked down at the other sign taped onto the door.

 

“YURI” it said in bold red block letters.

 

Otabek opened the door and dragged his suitcase inside, neglecting to remove his headphones. He didn’t want to be presumptive about claiming a certain side of the room before his new roommate arrived, so he just started putting some clothes into the closet to pass the time. He honestly didn’t know who or what kind of roommate he had been assigned. They did compatibility test match-ups for this kind of thing, but Otabek’s answers had all been incredibly neutral – especially on opinion-based questions, ranging all the way from “I don’t have a preference” to just “I don’t care.” His roommate could have gone either way.

 

Otabek’s thoughts wandered and he thought maybe he could talk to his floor leader about how they usually divvied up living spaces. If nothing else, the conversation would get him acquainted with the person more-or-less looking after him for the next few months and simultaneously help pass the time until his roommate arrived.

 

Otabek had just finished hanging his three jackets when he heard someone yelling in the hall over the volume of the music in his ears.

 

“No no no no NO! For fuck’s sake, WHY?”

 

“Yurochka, please. It’s not that bad.”

 

“Yes it IS! You were the _one_ person I didn’t want as my floor leader, goddammit!”

 

“Well now you’re just hurting my feelings.”

 

“What in holy _Hell_ did I do to deserve this?”

 

Otabek finally put his headphones and laundry aside to stick his head out into the hallway and see what was going on, along with many other curious students who were also moving in. What he saw were two almost frighteningly attractive blonde guys standing in front of the room next to his (located right before the door to their living area and meant to be his floor leader’s). The shorter blonde one was turning red from what Otabek assumed was pure rage and frustration.

 

“I have travelled thousands of miles from my homeland, to come to this school, to live in a dorm, taking the one in a million risk of having YOU as my floor leader and I fucking end up living _right next_ to you?”

 

“Actually it would be more like a one in twenty thousand chance, there isn’t – “

 

“SHUT UP!”

 

The shorter blonde then stormed off, completely leaving their living quarters and his leopard-print luggage behind. Otabek heard the taller blonde man sigh and saw him shake his head with an oddly fond expression on his face. Just as he moved to presumably take the luggage somewhere else, he met Otabek’s curious and prying eyes. Otabek kind of felt guilty for eavesdropping for a moment (even if it was hard to ignore), but the man’s face lit up upon seeing him.

 

“Hi there! You must be Otabek Altin. Sorry about the name on your door, I did my best to fix it. I learned English phonetically so I’m not great with spelling, especially with names. I promise I’ll reprint it later, but I was just in such a rush to get everything ready for today. Oh gosh, I didn’t introduce myself! I’m Victor Nikiforov, your floor leader.”

 

“Right,” Otabek said, taking his hand. “I gathered.” Otabek wasn’t sure if that sounded rude or not. He was a man of few words and had been told in the past that he didn’t always make a great first impression because of it.

 

Victor just yielded a bright laugh, though. “Of course you did! Yeah, that’s my room right next to you. Don’t worry, you’ll still have fun even if you’re living close to your ‘babysitter’, I promise.” He used air-quotes. “Although, you don’t seem like the hard core partying type.”

 

“I’m not, no,” Otabek replied.

 

“That’s perfectly fine. Makes my life easier, that’s for sure.”

 

Otabek usually didn’t ask about other people’s business, but his curiosity got the better of him. Also, Victor had an almost dangerous aura of charisma that made Otabek feel like he could tell him anything and Victor would take it to his grave if asked. “If you don’t mind my asking, who was that just now?”

 

“Oh! I knew I should have stopped him from running off, I could’ve introduced you two! That was Yuri Plisetsky, he’s your roommate.” Victor rushed to explain further, even grabbing Otabek’s arm as though he was trying to keep him from running away, despite the fact that Otabek hadn’t even thought about leaving. “He’s normally not that upset, I swear. That whole scene was kind of my fault after all. Want me to help you move in a bit? I feel bad.”

 

Otabek vaguely thought that this man went from 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye, and yet he accelerated so smoothly that he almost didn’t notice. Otabek’s guards were so down in front of this man that he even accepted his offer to help and then asked him to elaborate as they unpacked Otabek’s electronic keyboard.

 

“Well, you see Yurochka and I trained at the same facility in Russia ever since we were young. I’m practically his older brother.” Otabek detected the tone of a proud doting mother more than a brother’s. “And while brothers will always love each other and be family and come home to spend every holiday together, you never really want your brother to be looking after you while you attend school. So I somewhat sympathize with his frustration.”

 

“Didn’t he know you go to this school?” Otabek asked while setting up the piano’s legs.

 

“Oh, yes,” Victor said. “He knew I went here and that I was going to be a floor leader. But the building and floor assignments are completely random, so I imagine he probably thought the chances of being in the same building as me, let alone having me as his caretaker were so slim that he took the gamble. He’s also wanted to go to this performing arts school ever since I decided I was going to go when I was ten. I don’t think anything was going to stop him from coming here, even the possibility and eventual reality of having little old me living next door.”

 

“And he just found out today?” Usually Otabek wouldn’t be this talkative with strangers, but if it was the person he would be living next to and who would be kind of taking care of him for many months then making some conversation couldn’t hurt.

 

“Oh, we talk all the time. I just didn’t tell him. To be completely honest I wanted to see his face when he came to move in and saw me standing in the hall waiting to greet him.”

 

Otabek saw the mischievous grin Victor had on and took back his previous thought about Victor not really acting as a stereotypical older brother.

 

“Could you make sure Yurochka gets these whenever he returns?” Victor asked when they were done setting up, turning over the abandoned leopard-print luggage to Otabek. “I don’t want him accusing me of stealing his stuff. Again.”

 

“Of course,” Otabek responded in what he believed to be a pleasant tone.

 

“Thank you so much. I’ll be next door if you need me. Floor Tea Nights are every Friday at eight, and I try and plan a brunch every so often so let me know what days are best for you! Oh and don’t worry about Yurochka. He seems prickly at first, but he’s really just a soft little baby kitten under all that bravado. He warms up to people who are nice and feed him.”

 

Otabek didn’t really know what to make of that advice but he took it. “Okay.”

 

Just as Victor was about to leave, he whipped back around. “Oh! I almost forgot: do you have a favorite kind of tea?”

 

“Not really.”

 

“Any allergies?”

 

“No.”

 

“Do you prefer the temperature on the floor to be hot or cold?”  


“I don’t care.”

 

Victor was silent for a moment, observing Otabek. Then his face split into a grin. “Yurochka’s going to love you.”

 

Otabek was about to ask why, but Victor spun away yelling “Bye!” over his shoulder.

 

And now Otabek was left with twice the amount of luggage that he started with, and still no idea which bed he was supposed to put it on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Say hi at victuuri-oturi on Tumblr! I take writing prompts and answer any questions you have about the fic in more detail than on Ao3's comment section.
> 
> This is just an intro of sorts, so it's super short. Once I (eventually) finish the whole fic, I might mesh together chapters into bigger pieces, but for now and for the sake of my sanity, I'll be writing piece-meal.
> 
> Hope you enjoy this and look forward to more!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Otabek and Yuri really meet for the first time.

Otabek was looking over sheet music when Yuri returned. All of the sudden he looked up from the pages and there was a thin, beautiful boy standing in the doorway looking slightly embarrassed.

 

“Hi,” Otabek said.

 

The boy nodded at him. “Hi,” he said.

 

They stood in awkward silence for a bit, neither of them making a move. Eventually Otabek chose to try and diffuse the tension a bit. “You can come in if you want, it’s your room too y’know.”

 

Yuri didn’t say anything, just finally moved into the room and gravitated towards his bags that Otabek had put off to the side. Otabek just kept shifting through his binders and organizing them on a small bookcase that he bought earlier today: his furniture from home was way too big to bring over on the flight.

 

“Thanks for – “ Otabek heard Yuri cough behind him, and turned to look at him. “Thanks for getting my, uh, luggage…Thanks.”

 

“No problem,” he responded.

 

“And sorry,” Yuri rushed to continue. “Sorry for all the yelling earlier. I promise I won’t usually be like that, I just – me and Victor have known each other for a long time and-and he’s so annoying and I didn’t expect to see him and I – “

 

“It’s alright,” Otabek cut him off gently. He could see Yuri’s face getting redder and redder and he was struggling to meet Otabek’s eyes, he was so embarrassed. “Victor told me everything. I understand.”

 

Yuri looked surprised, but Otabek saw him take a deep breath and he at least looked more relaxed now. “Oh. Okay. Great.”

 

“Victor can be pretty overwhelming, I guess,” Otabek said.

 

Yuri’s face practically came to life. “I know right? He gets so… _touchy_ so fast.”

 

“It seems like he cares a lot about you, though. Isn’t that good?”

 

Yuri seemed taken aback, but not necessarily in a bad way. He just looked at Otabek with a mixed expression on his face. “Yeah. I guess.” He seemed slightly embarrassed again.

 

“I’m Otabek by the way.” He extended the hand that wasn’t holding a binder open. “Nice to meet you.”

 

“Oh! Right, yeah. I’m Yuri. Yuri Plisetsky, but you probably already knew my first name. I’m from Russia. But you probably guessed that too.”

 

“I’m from Kazakhstan,” Otabek said, slightly wary of the response it might get.

 

“So you came a long way too, huh? I knew there were a lot of international students here, but I didn’t expect so many in one building. I’ve already met people from Japan, Thailand, and Italy. And those are just the different floor leaders. And they’re all annoying.”

 

Otabek hummed noncommittally as he tried to clear up some space for Yuri’s stuff. They would really have to figure out living areas soon.

 

“Hey, what are you listening to?” Yuri asked.

 

Otabek was bewildered for a second, then remembered he had his headphones hung on his neck and had forgotten them there. The distant music emanating from them had blended into his subconscious awareness. “Oh, uh. Just some rock music.”

 

“What song?”

 

“Um,” Otabek took his phone out of his pocket and looked at the title. “’Welcome to the Madness’?” he offered.

 

Yuri’s pretty green eyes glinted off of the sunlight coming through the window. “I love that song,” he said too softly for the excitement that Otabek sensed underneath. He couldn’t help but smile.

 

“Me too.” He tucked his phone back into his jeans as Yuri gestured to his keyboard.

 

“Do you play?” he asked.

 

“Yeah, but I don’t really play rock, though. I study music theory and composition so I’m more focused on the classical genre. Sorry.”

 

“No! It’s fine, I study dance. Classical dance. Ballet. So I love classical music too. Kind of have to.”

 

Otabek’s wandering eyes settled on one piece in his book. _Piano Concerto: Allegro Appasionato in B Minor_. “Really? I love classical dance, it’s beautiful. I actually took lessons when I was younger, but I was never any good at it.”

 

“Seriously? That’s awesome. You look like you’d be amazing at lifts, you’re definitely strong enough.” Otabek looked up at him as Yuri flushed a bit. “Sorry, that sounded weird, I mean – “

 

“No, it’s not weird. Thank you very much, it means a lot. I never stayed long enough to start learning how to do lifts, but that’s very kind of you to say.”

 

Yuri gave a small laugh. Otabek wasn’t quite sure, but he began thinking that Yuri had warmed up to him. “No problem. Did you pick a bed already?”

 

“No, I was waiting for you. I didn’t want to assume anything.”

 

“Oh, wow. Thanks. That’s…”

 

“What?”

 

“It’s just…really nice of you. Other roommates usually make it their mission to move in first so they can claim their own space.”

 

Otabek shrugged. “That just seems a bit rude, doesn’t it?”

 

Yuri laughed again, a little louder this time. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess it does.” Yuri played with the zipper on his luggage. “I don’t really mind either way.”

 

“Do you get cold easy?”

 

“I’m from Russia. Of course I don’t get cold easily.”

 

Otabek smiled. Yuri saw it, and smiled back. “Then, do you want the bed closer to the window?”

 

“Why? _You_ get cold easily?” Yuri teased.

 

“Not really. I was just throwing out ideas.”

 

Yuri looked over to the window which looked out onto a small forested area behind their building. This area of campus was at the end of a cul-de-sac, making it private and quiet and giving the students and ideal hidden area to go get drunk in the woods. The trees right outside were nice, though.

 

“You don’t have to take that one, I wasn’t trying to force it on you,” Otabek said after seeing Yuri’s odd pensive expression aimed at the window.

 

“Actually…” Yuri said. “I will take the bed near the window.”

 

“You sure?” Otabek asked. “You don’t have to.”

 

“No, no. I want to.” Yuri smiled enough that it reassured Otabek. “Thanks for asking.”

 

“You’re welcome.” Otabek began cleaning up his mess of sheet music. “I’ll move the piano somewhere else then.” The space with the most room was right next to the window, but he didn’t want to be in Yuri’s way of his desk.

 

“No, no, no, don’t worry about it. It’s fine where it is,” Yuri stopped him.

 

Otabek looked at him in surprise. “Really?”

 

“Yeah, I don’t mind. I don’t even use my desk for studying – just for storage, so I really don’t care.”

 

“Alright,” Otabek said. “I can’t promise it’ll always be clean, but…”

 

“Dude, I really don’t care. Seriously.”

 

“Great. Now I can really start unpacking.”

 

Yuri seemed to startle, looking back at his suitcases like he suddenly remembered that they were there. “Oh, right!” He started unzipping every bag he had, rather than just doing one at a time.

 

Otabek glanced at him and laughed softly. But Yuri still heard it, looking up at him with a glare.

 

“What?” Yuri challenged.

 

“Nothing,” Otabek responded, looking back down at his music.

 

“Uh-huh,” Yuri said, going back to unpacking. Otabek would glance up every now and again to Yuri pulling out cheetah-print shirt after cheetah-print shirt, maintaining his composure. However, it was when Yuri pulled out two stuffed cats with a prominent blush on his face that Otabek began losing it.

 

Yuri’s head snapped up at the soft sound of Otabek’s laughter. “What! You got somethin’ to say?”

 

Otabek’s laugh died down, but he was still smiling. “No,” he said.

 

“If you keep making fun of me, we’re gonna have problems.”

 

“I’m not making fun of you,” Otabek said, his smile disappearing when he realized Yuri was truly offended. He wasn’t just embarrassed now, he was getting angry. He began angrily stuffing the animals back into the suitcase, but it was overflowing with clothing, making Yuri more frustrated the harder he shoved.

 

“Of course you are. If you have something to say just say it to my face. I really couldn’t give a shit what you think about my ‘girly crap’ okay.”

 

“Yuri – “

 

“I’m actually trying to get along with people for the first time in my life, so I really don’t appreciate the _bullshit_ – ”

 

“Yuri – “

 

“God, I thought you were cool for a – “

 

“Yuri!”

 

Yuri looked up in surprise at Otabek’s loud voice. Otabek almost never raised his voice above conversational volume, but it had gotten Yuri’s attention. He made sure Yuri was staring at him, then he pointed over to his desk. On which sat three stuffed bears, all of varying sizes. One of them even had a tutu on, which was from one of his sisters.

 

Yuri looked over, and Otabek saw his eyes flicker from surprise, to confusion. Otabek cleared his throat to get Yuri’s attention again, then reached down into the bag closest to him.

 

From its depths he revealed the most gigantic bear he had been able to bring with him overseas. Big bow tie and everything.

 

“Oh,” Yuri said.

 

“Yeah,” Otabek responded, still holding the bear aloft.

 

“So you like…?”

 

“Bears.”

 

“Huh.”

 

“And you like…cats?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Okay.” He placed the bear on his keyboard temporarily. “I was nervous to put it out. Didn’t know what my roommate would think.”

 

Otabek watched as Yuri’s face flushed for what must have been the fourth time.

 

“You want some help unpacking?” Otabek decided it was time to move on. The issue was resolved. “I’m pretty much almost done anyway.”

 

“Um, sure. That’d be – “ Yuri looked down at his hands that were still attempting to hold back the clothes threatening to explode from his bag. “That’d be great, thanks.”

 

Otabek just nodded, his hands joining Yuri’s to fend back leopard print.

 

Yuri, still blushing, asked Otabek, “Can you – do you want to, uh, listen to some music…while we unpack?”

 

Otabek met Yuri’s eyes. It was the closest he’d seen them so far, and Otabek realized they looked beautiful in any light. Even the shitty fluorescent desk light the room came with. “Sure. What do you want to listen to?”

 

“Anything you want,” Yuri responded.

 

Otabek turned on his lengthy playlist, and they listened in comfortable, relative silence as they worked.

 

Yuri liked every single song.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooooh, I'm starting to get that fun excited feeling for this fic. My show has opened now, so I will be writing more frequently now. Sorry for the lack of updates, both on here and on tumblr if you follow me!
> 
> There's much to come, so stay tuned. ;)
> 
> Follow me at victuuri-oturi on Tumblr for updates and fun fan art!


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